For the first time in the country, the Speaker Court of Jharkhand Assembly will hear a case in online mode. The Speaker Court of Jharkhand Assembly Speaker, Rabindra Nath Mahto will hear the anti-defection case of Babulal Marandi through online mode on August 24. The hearing will commence at 12 noon. The Court in this connection has already informed both the parties, Marandi and other sides comprising Congress MLAs Pradeep Yadav, Bandhu Tirkey and others.
An official of the Assembly secretariat requesting anonymity said, “This is for the first time that any case of a lawmaker will be heard online as due to Covid pandemic physical hearing of the case is suspended. The Assembly secretariat has made preparations. The hearing will be made through Google platform. Both parties have been informed.”
The Speaker will hear the plaintiff-defendant’s side through the meeting. The Assembly is busy improving its technical infrastructure.
Apart from the case at Speaker Court, the anti-defection case of Marandi is also heard at Jharkhand High Court. In March this year, the anti-defection case under the tenth schedule of the Constitution was heard at the tribunal court of Jharkhand Assembly Speaker Rabindra Nath Mahto.
During the hearing, BJP legislative party leader and Dhanwar MLA Babulal Marandi’s counsel RN Sahay had pleaded the Speaker not to hold the hearing claiming that the case of Leader of Opposition is pending in the Jharkhand High Court.
Sahay pleaded that the case pertaining to the Leader of Opposition is pending in the High Court. He argued that since both the cases are related to each other it will not be appropriate for the Speaker’s tribunal to hear the case. The tribunal court should wait for the High Court judgment.
At the same time, Poreyahat MLA Pradeep Yadav and Mandar MLA Bandhu Tirkey’s counsel Sumit Garodia argued that the matter is related to membership and it is different from the Leader of Opposition case.
Garodia had said even if Marandi was Leader of Opposition the Speaker’s Court had the power to hear the anti-defection case of Marandi. It may be noted that in the 2019 State Assembly elections three members of JVM(P) won the elections including Marandi from Dhanwar, Pradeep Yadav from Poreyahat and Bandhu Tirkey from Mandar. Out of these three, Marandi in 2020 merged his party JVM(P) with BJP , while the other two legislators Yadav and Tirkey claiming to be real JVM(P) merged their party with Congress.